It all began with a Google announcement ( http://goo.gl/joqjNq ) in February which said:

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices

Now, this is not ‘out of the blue’ or unprecedented. Google had made similar but less extensive changes to smartphone search results much earlier. ( http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/changes-in-rankings-of-smartphone_11.html ). However, that one didn’t use the SEO trigger phrase of ‘ranking factors’ and merely said:

To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users.

But in both cases this affects mobile search, not all search.

Let me repeat that so we are clear.

Google have announced that when you are searching using a mobile device it is finally going to try to send you to a result that works on the mobile device you are currently using, and down-grade the listings for sites you can’t fully use.

This is a obvious move and it’s been in the making for a while.

People and SEO MASTERS of the universe are writing story after story about this MASSIVE PROBLEM. That in reality its not a problem a all.

But this is still an algorithm update about mobile search and not desktop or default search results.

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.

In reality if you didn’t care about mobile before because lets face it you have a billion other things to worry. Then you are probably not missing out on much anyway.

Your mobile experience sucked so you got zero conversions so now with less traffic you’re also going to get a big FAT zero anyway.

Mobilegeddon = Whatevergeddon

Source: Ammon Johns

It’s a phenomenon!
Experts keep ‘informing‘ everyone to avoid it like the plague.“Remove the anxiety and they will progress”
There’s a lot of bullshit in the world of “conversion rate optimization”. There’s also a lot of honest-to-god intentionality, forethought, hard work and perseverance that goes into a shit load of testing and analysis.

Have any question you would love me to cover for next time? Leave a comment below!

It’s not every day you go out of your way to buy underwear. For a guy in his early 30’s that loves to shop online and still enjoys the retail experience, one would think that the ‘buying’ underwear journey should be pretty straightforward right?

At the end of the day whatever you’re doing it’s still work. Like everything there is hard work and easy work. Conversion rate optimisation comes in two flavours and it depends what part of the WORK you’re paid to do.

You have the digital producers/web developers that will make the changes the conversion rate optimisation experts have suggested.

Then you have the conversion rate optimisation experts that tell the designers what needs to be changed based on case studies, professional opinions and previous successful campaigns.

So what does any of the above have to do with the dog eating your conversion rate optimisation you may ask? Well one major factor is that we jump too early into the DEEP end of conversion rate optimisation without really sitting down and analysing exactly what the main objectives are.

When I discuss main objectives with clients it is not about the conversion rate optimisation, sales, profits or leads. It’s about the client’s hopes and dreams and usually their client’s hopes and dreams too.

When you really drill down to it, hopes and dreams is what makes the world go around.

Example owner of ABC Shoes (yes, it’s fictional) wants to be the largest online shoe retailer in Australia. They want to be the go to destination for all things shoes and they want to be online only and an exclusive brand. With this hope and dream come the by-products being conversions, money, fame, profits and leads.

So what are their client’s hopes and dreams then? Well let’s think about it for a second? Why do you buy shoes?

You want to look presentable, it goes well with your suit or dress, and you feel a million bucks with a pair of shinny loafers or pumps or you may just want the shoes for exercise and work.

Their clients’ hopes and dreams are emotional, to an affect self-centred and present a need of filling a void (possibly fashion or just plain necessity) by purchasing shoes.

Discovering the hopes and dreams of people you need to convert opens the door to finding out what they fear and causes them anxiety.

Anxiety at the checkout is a major factor affecting shopping carts the world over and as conversion rate optimisation experts we need to focus on reducing anxiety and move them swiftly and peacefully through the buying phase.

Best-practice in conversion rate optimisation is bullsh#t! No one client or buyer is the same. So no one best practice will fit the situation of every person in the world.

But do you know what does produce results? WORK! That’s what.

Putting the hard yards into a conversion rate optimisation strategy at the beginning and getting to know the visitors you are trying to convert intimately will see you on your way to a successful CRO job.

So NO MORE EXCUSES! Do the hope and dream research before you get started on the game-plan!

What is your experience with client hopes and dream? Comment below…

[Tweet “When you really drill down to it, hopes and dreams is what makes the world go around.”]

11am Saturday on a beautiful Sydney morning. I find myself walking through a department store in the city looking for a new couch. Surprisingly many people are out on a day like today, you would expect them to be at the beach or at least in the sunshine.

Touching leather, moving on and sitting on another trying to find that perfect balance of comfort and height that would suit our living room. This one couch was perfect, not the price tag, but the couch was perfect. It was the right size, colour and could easily fit the family including the puppy.

I thought about the price a little, I usually don’t care about the price but I don’t go out there looking for the most expensive thing to brag about either. I was consciously going through scenarios of this couch in our living room and matching up the dollars to value and emotional connection we may have.

All of a sudden I looked up to my fiancé with a smile and feeling of readiness to buy. But she was affixed to her iPhone as if she was solving a medical mystery. Totally ignoring my glance I was intrigued to what she might be doing so thoughtfully and attentively. I took a short glance over towards her phone and to my shock horror she had the same couch we are sitting on, on her screen at an online competitors website.

You have probably heard about Google’s zero moment of truth ZMOT. Well this was the zero moment of horror for me as I was not sure what to do, what to say… had I just caught her showrooming? I literally fell off the couch we wanted to buy.

I quickly composed myself and stated that I would be right back, making my way to the safety of the electronics and computer section, but as I did I noticed more and more people glued to the screen of their smartphones with the same products in real life being displayed on their device of choice. More showrooming! Am I the only one not showrooming in this store?

Showrooming is a trend that retailers simply can’t ignore – while showroomers accounted for only 6% of all shoppers globally, this group accounted for nearly half of all online purchases. What this means is millions are being lost for the bricks and mortars traditional retailers.

A study by IBM which surveyed 26,000 shoppers in 14 countries, one of the largest surveys of its kind, found that for example in China, 24% of respondents identified themselves as showroomers. Online-only retailers are capitalising on this trend, accounting for one-third of showroomer purchases.

IBM’s study found that UK consumers are changing the way they research and ultimately purchase goods. Of the UK respondents surveyed, 77% of shoppers said they chose the store to make their last non-grocery purchase, but only 51% were committed to returning there for the next purchase, while 45% were unsure whether they would next shop at a store or online.

This is particularly striking in the consumer electronics sector, where only 30% of the UK consumers surveyed made their last purchase in a store. And other product categories are likely to follow, for example luxury brands, which was found to be one of the top categories for showrooming at a global level.

Showrooming (as I found out for myself) is a serious problem for traditional retailers and one that can be combated with some smarts in technology and wiliness to adapt to the every changing world of commerce.

You see, I care very much about the world of offline retail as I was raised in a women’s fashion retail store and my father still is running his label and even though he is not directly affected (most of the clothes are custom designed) he still sees showrooming being done constantly in store.

What would I do if I was an offline retailer and getting smashed by showrooming you asked? Of course I have a strategy for it.

First thing I would do is dominate using Google Adwords. With a bit of hyper-local mobile targeting you can almost zero in on your store and serve ads for those cheeky enough to search for products you have in store.

So in my imaginary store called ‘Parisis Shoes’ I sell the Phillip loafer. With Google Adwords and targeted hyper- local mobile strategy when the showroomer searches an ad will pop up with some smart text saying “Parisis Shoe Customer – In store looking for loafers? Click to receive instant 10% discount coupon” get the picture.

So this is great in a few ways (if I do say so myself)

1) You hopefully don’t lose the customer as your campaign is highly targeted and Google Adwords appear way before and SEO listings when your search on mobile.

2) You send a coupon to the smartphone that gets added to Apple Passbook or Google Wallet. (more about that below)

3) You find out exactly who was showrooming and offer them a smile and extra special personalised service so they feel the love and want to shop from you again.

Point two above brings me to a very important strategy that will change the game and finally start connecting multi-channel retailers closer to the offline world.

With the likes of Apple Passbook and Google Wallet now making an appearance on people’s phones, retailers can connect even easier with their customers. These apps allow users to store information such as store coupons, tickets and customer reward cards.

“When you have a ‘Pass’ in Passbook, it’s another valuable way marketers can connect beyond showrooming because as consumers walk past a store, an alert message appears on their phones telling them a location is nearby where they can use their passes,” Jack Philbin, cofounder and CEO of mobile marketing solutions company Vibes, told Mashable.

Remind your customers of your presence without being invasive. Without the need to download another local marketing coupon app (Apple passbook and Google wallet is native). As a retailer avoid being locked down to monthly fees and push to send fees of those stated local coupon marketing apps.

If you want to get started using Apple passbook you can have a look at pass source that comes with many templates and easy creation of passes (you may need some technical knowledge for advanced stuff but still easily to use).

So I know what you’re thinking? What ever happened to the couch right? Well we still have not purchased the couch. I was too embarrassed to go back to that place and ‘look’ at it again (possible showroom it again).

I also quickly got over the showrooming awkwardness, with my fiancé explaining girls know how to spend money while saving money at the same time and you can take that to the bank. I will also take it to my next strategy meeting with clients in women’s fashion and apparel.

I would love to hear your stories or comments on showrooming below. Are you a showroomer on occasions?

If you’re an offline retailer and struggling to combat showrooming or in general sales, please checkout my Showrooming Defender course by clicking here.

You are wrong! A very important factor when you start getting serious about conversion rate optimisation for your website is understand what you did wrong to make them leave. The harsh reality is that 96% of your visitors are saying no to you every day.

Let me set the scene (I love setting scenes):

You were hesitant to go down that path. Let’s face it you tried it before and it didn’t work. Some of your friends had the same experience and others had amazing stories to share about how well it worked for them.

You bit the bullet and started updating your information. Before you knew it, you had what looked like a good start point and pressed submit. It was scary and you did hesitate going back and forth analysis the information you added making sure it represents you the right way. Nobody likes a creep or a show off and you were none of those right?

So now you had to wait for their approval. So you waited. ‘What’s to approve’ you thought it’s just little old you.

An email arrived not long later giving you a nice little rush as it stated in the subject line ‘your approved.

Bursting with excitement but trying to keep a cool, calm exterior you slowly but clumsily tried to log on and see them. ‘Could I find the one?’ you thought. Before dismissing it with negative thoughts and the harsh reality you probably just wasted a whole bunch of money.

Then something magical happened… Just like that they appeared, like a small ants on a world map making its way across countries with no borders no passport just freedom to move as it pleased.

You watched one in particular; you could tell this one was different. She moved from one page to another. Your heart fluttered every time she changed page, then you noticed she moved into another part of your pride and joy. You see her sitting on the checkout page. She just stood there ready, willing and able but with no more interaction. Your heart stops. Your blood starts rushing to your brain. “Is she looking for her credit card” you babble out loud as you stand up and maximise the browser window on Google Analytics REAL-TIME.

Then, just as quick as she appeared she disappeared off your screen. You are hoping, wishing and praying that the next page she appears on is your thank you page. But it doesn’t happen. She is gone and may never ever to return.

Now this happens over and over and over with others… your beautifully crafted Ad words campaign is bringing them to the party but your just not converting.

Capturing the voice of your customers is a lot harder online. There are a few tools that help you understand what they are doing and how they are acting and reacting to certain parts of your websites.

You need to find out quick smart why people are not converting. When I say find out. I mean with evidence not take a guess. You need to work out what part of your page is under performing and why.

What you may think works on your site may suck for 96% of other people…

This is very straight forward. You need to look at your site as an outsider. Not a business owner but as a customer. What would sh*t you as a customer online shopping on someone else’s website would probably sh*t the visitor to your website that didn’t convert.

The first step is to use the right tools in order to identify what your visitors are doing.

Google Analytics (GA) should be one of the first things you enable on your site even before your site is ready for production. I won’t go into the benefits right now of having GA in the testing to live phases of your website launch but one thing you will notice really quickly is its power.

You can start following the funnel process using GA very early in the journey of your visitors. This will help identify places they may drop off.

What are Google analytics Funnels?

Google Analytics Funnels allow you to follow your target audience through at every stage of the conversion process to find out where potential customers are dropping out; to find out at which point in the conversion process these potential customers decide to not continue with the conversion.

How do I setup Google analytics Funnels?

To set-up a conversion funnel, if you have never done this before, follow the quick tip guide below and begin to reap the benefits of tightening up your optimization analysis possibilities within just a few hours.

When you are in the profile in which you would like to set up a Google analytics Funnel, click on the button marked “admin” to begin.

Select the “goals” tab from the drop-down menu.

Select the option to open a blank goal and select “+goal” (add goal)

At this point you will need to select “URL Destination,” input the backslash icon and follow that with the text that signifies the page Internet users will arrive to once they have completely gone through your entire conversion process.

Walk your way through the site’s checkout or conversion completion process and make a note of every single URL along the way. our site’s conversion process might include any or all of the following…

a cart page

a shipping selection page

a review of the shipping selection page

an advertisement page

a thank you page confirming the order has been successful

maybe even a special offer page at the very end to encourage even further conversions

You should set up a funnel for every single URL – every single page – to determine when in the conversion funnel process your potential customers are leaving the site and why.

Notice along the way at what step people are dropping off and then you found a BOTTLE NECK or a ROAD BLOCK to conversions. This is the important stage. You need to go back and investigate why the page is just not working for your clients.

Is it to cluttered, not enough information or calls to action to move the visitor to possible next step? Do you need to add some trust symbols and testimonials for example. You could be asking for to much information too early in the conversion process.

Going CRAZY with Crazyegg.com

Above I mentioned that GA funnels are super important to find out where the visitors drop out. Now with crazyegg.com we can work out why they are dropping out using heatmaps and scroll maps to assist us understanding how our customers use the site and where they are clicking exactly. No guess work involved.

With heat mapping it’s important to remember that these are your visitors showing you what they are doing and how they are interacting with your site. You can see every click they make and what they are clicking a lot of and if they are actually missing the call to action. I have seen millions of examples of a heat map screaming out at a client asking them to make a whole sentence clickable instead of just using the CLICK HERE to purchase. Really powerful stuff don’t you agree?

Ever wondered how far visitors scrolled on your page? Then crazyegg will help you there too. A scroll map shows exactly what HOT points or most of the attention has been taken up by your visitors and will show how some areas below the fold are failing your site. Specially if you have calls-to-action in the non visited zones.

Another must have tool… LuckyOrange.com Stalking with VIDEO.

I bumped into lucky orange on one of these internet marketing daily deal sites. It wasn’t without its problems but firing through some super suggestions to the owner and developer the platform really really started working well for our clients and our sites. It’s a NO brainer for $10 a month and works like a charm.

This software records 100 last visitors to your site and the actions they have taken. So its basically a REAL visual of the Funnel from Google Analytics. It is awesome to watch to understand and appreciate how visitors are using your site to transact or not.

Luckyorange also provides heat maps and live chat which is great considering how affordable it is but I must warn you that the insights from both crazyegg and luckyorange are interesting and helpful so use both if you can afford it.

Conclusion to this love story…

You can’t make everyone love you or buy from you… you can’t by love (depending who you ask) but you can buy super honest information to make you more desirable online.

Remember that your site has to serve… Most visitors are focused on what’s in it for me. So make sure your conversion rate optimisation practices and methodologies are based around this.

I would love to hear your feedback how you have made significant improvements just by changing small elements of your website.

You may have heard… Ecommerce sites for big retailers in Australia generally suck. When I say suck I mean big time. It’s like they throw a site together using corporate branding and say FU online customers you know who we are you better buy or your missing out.

We know better. We know Australians are more savvy and sometimes more security conscious for online purchases than the rest of the world. I mean many of us have shopped Amazon once or twice. Even our credit card has been riddled with ASOS charges every now and then.

So why are the Australian retailers treating us like chumps? Didn’t they learn anything from ‘Click Frenzy’ can’t they see that people want to buy and sometimes can’t when something has been so ramped up with so much marking and PR hype?

This article will make the agencies or in house teams responsible for miserable ecommerce experiences shiver. I’ll expect hate email but that’s just me.

So what are the big Australian retailers doing wrong and why are they not winning our trust as buying connoisseurs. From a marketing and conversions rate optimisation points of view (and of course mine).

David Jones – (DJ’s)

http://shop.davidjones.com.au/

Once had Miranda Kerr as an ambassador and was one of the pinnacle mega stores in the Australian market.

Miranda may have tried to buy online at shop.davidjones.com.au but decided not to for possible reasons I have listed below.

1. Use the top header bar like a boss!

Look at any site… the header is the header is the header. The most important and expensive virtual real estate on a website and ecommerce site.

This example shows David Jones and the branding police not using the space correctly.

2. Did someone forget the Add to cart button?

Now in this example has variables that need to be selected like size, colours etc. But why are we not giving the visitor a chance to buy direct of the product page without needed to pick the variables first.

Through heat map tracking and videos I have personally found 15% of products are ‘ADD TO CART’ from the product page.

3. Where did my shopping cart go?

Above the fold or it won’t get sold… is one of my favorite sayings… I have a whole chapter on it in my e-book 14 Ecommerce Hacks to Double Profits.

Below is what David Jones are using as a Shopping Cart page that is suppose to move people from Shopping Cart/Bag page to the final checkout process.

The only problem is… The CHECKOUT SECURELY button, is about two pages down. That’s right, two pages. This is a massive NO NO. You are wasting visitor’s time looking for how to pay you, this will lead to massive drop offs in conversions.

The red border is the first page (Above the fold).

To conclude I just want to say I don’t have anything against David Jones or the marketing team or the agencies involved in its creation and innovation. Actually, quite the opposite.

I want online retail to succeed in Australia. I don’t always liked to be dragged through large department stores by my fiancé when I know I can easily be doing this online.

David Jones call me… maybe? Hehe

What do you think about online retail in Australia? Do you agree or disagree with my short audit above? Leave a comment below

About me

Hi, I'm Phillip Parisis and welcome to my blog where you will find the latest in digital marketing and conversion rate optimisation strategies that work. I'm a digital strategist from way back helping businesses and start-ups grow. I'm experienced, results-driven, innovative, unique and a lover of dogs and fashion.